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Saturday, May 11, 2013

Corn Fritters

As you know, I love making quick-yet-nourishing weekday breakfasts, styling them prettily and instagramming them. On weekends, I've gotten into the habit of making slightly more involved cafe-style brunches - it takes a bit of time, but the results are delicious, and I do love pottering about the kitchen!

The breakfast, above, was my take on that ubiquitous cafe staple of corn fritters. I googled a few recipes to get a general idea of how to make them, and then ended up doing it my own way. Basically I wanted maximum corniness: loads of corn kernels just bound by a little batter.

To increase the corn-factor even more, I used a small tin of creamed corn as a binding agent, instead of just egg. Creamed corn is all kinds of awesome! For extra flavour I added a finely chopped red onion and cayenne pepper. (I later learned, through a hospo-working friend of mine, that one of the most popular restaurants in Melbourne uses corn purée in their fritters for this exact reason. Win!)

Corn fritter batter, pre-mixing

I used the kernels of a fresh ear of corn, and boosted quantities with a small tin of corn kernels, because this is what I happened to have in my fridge and pantry - for ease, in the recipe below I've specified either two ears of corn or a normal-sized (400 gram) tin of corn kernels.

Corn kernels

I loved the golden, corn-studded batter!

Batter

Shallow frying! One tip: this batter is quite delicate, with the corn kernels barely held together by the batter, so don't be tempted to flip the fritters until they are well and truly sealed on the bottom, and cooked at least half way through, otherwise you'll be in for a big mess! (As I write this, it occurs to me that you could deep-fry tablespoons of the mixture for a super-crispy result, but I feel that would be more canapé than brunch).

Frying

Cooked fritters

Now, the fun stuff: sides! I went all out and did poached eggs (mine were really messy, as you can see above - must practise!), smoked salmon, diced avocado spritzed with lime juice and sprinkled with salt and pepper, and chive labneh. And when I say labneh, I really mean that I just lined a sieve with a paper coffee filter, spooned some 0% Greek yogurt in there and let it drip while I got on with everything else. To serve the labneh, I poured over a little extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkled with salt, pepper and chopped chives. (Chopped chives make everything taste better!)

Diced avocado, chive labneh

Other ideas I had for sides: bacon, fried eggs, halloumi (like St. Ali's corn fritters), tomato relish (or any expensive relish/chutney/salsa that you have languishing in your pantry), guacamole, pico de gallo... anything you like, really! They're turn out quite sweet (corn, duh), so salty accompaniments work well. For the maximum corn-experience, why not wrap them up in a corn tortilla?

But you know what? Even if you eat these plain, they're pretty damn good. They're super-corny, nice and pancakey on the inside, and with fab crisp edges. Despite being fried, they feel light and bright and delicious. It's totally worth setting aside your Sunday morning to make these!

Corn Fritters

An original recipe from Sarah Cooks, inspired by the multitudes of corn fritters at Melbourne's cafes!

Ingredients

1 x 125 gram tin of creamed corn

1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon bicarb

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 red onion, finely chopped

Small handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

The kernels from 2 ears of corn, or 1 x 400g tin of corn kernels

Method

Place all the ingredients except for the corn kernels in a mixing bowl, and whisk to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Slice the kernels off the corn (or open the tin of corn!) and add to the bowl.

Heat a layer of vegetable oil in a non-stick frying pan. Cook spoonfuls of the corn mixture in the hot oil for about three minutes a side, only flipping when the fritters are sealed on the bottom.

Place the corn fritters in a 75C oven as you cook the rest of the batter.

Makes 6 fritters, serves 2-4 depending on how hungry you are and what you serve them with.

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About Me

A 30 year old Malaysian - Chinese - Australian food lover. Lives in Melbourne. Loves eating, cooking and baking, in this great city and around the world. Current culinary obsessions are traditional German and British recipes.
Photos by Sandra K at Sekai Photography.
Original Artwork by Zhen.